Report from the seminar "Management of hopeless projects" Edward Yordan.
On April 23, a seminar was held at the Infocenter , the author and presenter of which is the human legend Edward Youdon .
At the beginning of my report, I would like to mention the benefits of attending seminars. In our professional activities, in addition to practical experience, we gain knowledge through reading relevant books from professional communication and articles on the Internet. Seminars (seminar leaders, gurus) help to structure knowledge, push to their own conclusions, talk about development directions and achievements in management thought. With some of my thoughts that came during the seminar, I would like to introduce you in this report.
')
And I would like to start with Edward Yourdon himself. Edward is an excellent lecturer with a good, understandable English speech, so I decided to listen to the first session without headphones, enjoying the speech of a native speaker. Now Yordon is 64 years old and he is a specialist with over 40 years of experience . Edward periodically referred to some examples and events from his professional path from a youth who committed devastating mistakes in his first projects to a guru, with his advice pulling out other people's hopeless projects. From the glitter in the eyes of this man and his vigor, with which he led the seminar, I can tell you that there will be more than one book on project management written by Edward Jordan.
On the Internet, I somehow caught some criticism of Jordan for paying excessive attention to the 2000 problem. Well, firstly, it is the Americans with their global sense of the problem (and often, by the way, reasonable. For example, the mortgage crisis in America went bankrupt, even those not connected with financial activities, companies around the world). Secondly, Iordon led and advised several projects related to the Y2K problem. This experience is rather interesting not because of the scale of a possible catastrophe, but as an example of a project with a rigidly set deadline. In this perspective, all projects to correct the Y2K problem that started too late were “hopeless projects” or could have become such.
In the first part (using the plan from the article by Irina Surova ), the seminar Yordon considered the policy issues of the project. Initially, he recommends identifying key project participants, and also (I didn’t see anything like this before the seminar) identify loser users. These are the users who will lose from the successful completion of the project (example: employees who will lose jobs after introducing the product you are creating).
A necessary condition is to reduce to a compromise disagreement among the project participants (sponsor, leadership, etc.).
Excerpt from the seminar: The largest customer and software developer in the United States is the Department of Defense. In addition to the usual interaction between the leadership and the design team of developers, there are relations of military subordination, often turning a normal project into a hopeless one. This is when, say, a colonel comes to a project meeting, who is not versed in technologies or in the features of managing software creation, and makes his own adjustments to the process. "Sir is sir". Orders, as is known, are not discussed.
It is necessary to determine the level of commitment and the degree of involvement of each participant in the process.
Excerpt from the seminar: The chicken and the pig decided to organize a snack bar, where they would serve bacon and eggs. At one point, a discussion broke out between the co-founders about who is more involved in the process of creating a dish.
“I’m involved,” said the chicken, “I’m supplying my eggs for the dish.”
“And I'm doomed,” said the pig, “because I give bacon.”
The ability to negotiate in "hopeless projects" is sometimes one of the most important skills, because the main recipe for pulling out of the swamp of such projects is an agreement to reduce the functionality. In this section, I especially want to highlight the topic of negotiation games and negotiation strategies. Here I would recommend a book by Robert Cialdini “The Psychology of Influence” (although, perhaps, there are already books about negotiations in projects).
Jordon answered additional questions from listeners during breaks between sessions.
Excerpt from the seminar: During the events with US President Clinton and his loving friend Monica Lewinsky, at a conference for journalists in the White House, a press secretary, who did not know all the information about the developed official position, said: "We don’t cheat, we just slowly tell the truth. "
Edward talked about how harmful the specialist’s distraction from work is, from the state of the flow. According to the results of the presented research, distraction occurs about 300 times in one working day. I remembered one way to combat distraction , which everyone can try in their company. Let's call it the "Red Cap". Its essence lies in the fact that the employee puts on a red cap (props and rules should be stipulated in advance at the meeting) and all the time while he works in it, no one has the right to disturb and distract him. Of course, there are exceptions, but the reasons for distraction should be very significant.
Excerpt from the seminar: “Any commander in chief who is going to execute a plan (order) that he considers wrong makes a mistake. In this case, he is obliged to state the reasons for his disagreement with the plan and insist that the plan be changed. And in extreme cases, to give up his post in order not to become an instrument of defeating the army. ”Napoleon
During the breaks, Edward included videos from Youtube . In general, Iordon actively advises to use web 2.0 solutions, for example, he himself uses Twitter , Dopplr and others. Personally, I recommend using the local wiki as the easiest and most effective way to organize a knowledge base (I mentioned this in my article on improving one of the stages of web development ). If you have a small project, the team is distributed in different places, and communication takes place via the Internet, then use BaseCamp to consolidate.
In this section, light and heavy processes were mentioned ( CMM evaluation system and Agile light processes), Edward in turn called the CMM level and asked to raise the hands of the seminar participants, who believe that their company has reached this level. The hall was attended by people whose companies reached the latest levels, including the fifth. There is something to be proud of, others have something to strive for. Edward mentioned the importance of the prototype and the prototyping stage itself (you may be interested in the prototyping system I created for my manager, HolyGrail ). Jordon talked about the concept of “Daily Build” and configuration management. Demonstrated what he was talking about by opening an email program on his Apple laptop. In addition to the official version of the program in parentheses contained the working version number.
Seminars in Russia (Edward read another seminar in St. Petersburg) - Yordan's first visit to Russia. Edward shares his impressions in his personal blog .
Anyone who wants to learn more about the materials of the seminar, have the opportunity to download the presentation of Edward Yordan's Death March Project , with which he spoke in Russia. In the presentation (pdf format) you will find many links to articles and books.
Related Links:
Report of Irina Surova on the site uml2.ru
Edward Jordan's book "The Path of the Kamikaze" on ozon.ru
The book "The Way of Kamikaze" on oz.by
Personal site of Edward Jordan
I bring to your attention the video master classes of Edward Yordan dedicated to social networks, dedicated to the Social Experience conference (for more, see the Social Experience Conference on Habrahabr ):
smotri.com/video/view/?id=v39309061e7
smotri.com/video/view/?id=v3938024996
smotri.com/video/view/?id=v3930009aae
Source: Amazing Development. Usability and Project Management
At the beginning of my report, I would like to mention the benefits of attending seminars. In our professional activities, in addition to practical experience, we gain knowledge through reading relevant books from professional communication and articles on the Internet. Seminars (seminar leaders, gurus) help to structure knowledge, push to their own conclusions, talk about development directions and achievements in management thought. With some of my thoughts that came during the seminar, I would like to introduce you in this report.
')
And I would like to start with Edward Yourdon himself. Edward is an excellent lecturer with a good, understandable English speech, so I decided to listen to the first session without headphones, enjoying the speech of a native speaker. Now Yordon is 64 years old and he is a specialist with over 40 years of experience . Edward periodically referred to some examples and events from his professional path from a youth who committed devastating mistakes in his first projects to a guru, with his advice pulling out other people's hopeless projects. From the glitter in the eyes of this man and his vigor, with which he led the seminar, I can tell you that there will be more than one book on project management written by Edward Jordan.
On the Internet, I somehow caught some criticism of Jordan for paying excessive attention to the 2000 problem. Well, firstly, it is the Americans with their global sense of the problem (and often, by the way, reasonable. For example, the mortgage crisis in America went bankrupt, even those not connected with financial activities, companies around the world). Secondly, Iordon led and advised several projects related to the Y2K problem. This experience is rather interesting not because of the scale of a possible catastrophe, but as an example of a project with a rigidly set deadline. In this perspective, all projects to correct the Y2K problem that started too late were “hopeless projects” or could have become such.
Politics
In the first part (using the plan from the article by Irina Surova ), the seminar Yordon considered the policy issues of the project. Initially, he recommends identifying key project participants, and also (I didn’t see anything like this before the seminar) identify loser users. These are the users who will lose from the successful completion of the project (example: employees who will lose jobs after introducing the product you are creating).
A necessary condition is to reduce to a compromise disagreement among the project participants (sponsor, leadership, etc.).
Excerpt from the seminar: The largest customer and software developer in the United States is the Department of Defense. In addition to the usual interaction between the leadership and the design team of developers, there are relations of military subordination, often turning a normal project into a hopeless one. This is when, say, a colonel comes to a project meeting, who is not versed in technologies or in the features of managing software creation, and makes his own adjustments to the process. "Sir is sir". Orders, as is known, are not discussed.
It is necessary to determine the level of commitment and the degree of involvement of each participant in the process.
Excerpt from the seminar: The chicken and the pig decided to organize a snack bar, where they would serve bacon and eggs. At one point, a discussion broke out between the co-founders about who is more involved in the process of creating a dish.
“I’m involved,” said the chicken, “I’m supplying my eggs for the dish.”
“And I'm doomed,” said the pig, “because I give bacon.”
Conversation
The ability to negotiate in "hopeless projects" is sometimes one of the most important skills, because the main recipe for pulling out of the swamp of such projects is an agreement to reduce the functionality. In this section, I especially want to highlight the topic of negotiation games and negotiation strategies. Here I would recommend a book by Robert Cialdini “The Psychology of Influence” (although, perhaps, there are already books about negotiations in projects).
Jordon answered additional questions from listeners during breaks between sessions.
Excerpt from the seminar: During the events with US President Clinton and his loving friend Monica Lewinsky, at a conference for journalists in the White House, a press secretary, who did not know all the information about the developed official position, said: "We don’t cheat, we just slowly tell the truth. "
Staff
Edward talked about how harmful the specialist’s distraction from work is, from the state of the flow. According to the results of the presented research, distraction occurs about 300 times in one working day. I remembered one way to combat distraction , which everyone can try in their company. Let's call it the "Red Cap". Its essence lies in the fact that the employee puts on a red cap (props and rules should be stipulated in advance at the meeting) and all the time while he works in it, no one has the right to disturb and distract him. Of course, there are exceptions, but the reasons for distraction should be very significant.
Excerpt from the seminar: “Any commander in chief who is going to execute a plan (order) that he considers wrong makes a mistake. In this case, he is obliged to state the reasons for his disagreement with the plan and insist that the plan be changed. And in extreme cases, to give up his post in order not to become an instrument of defeating the army. ”Napoleon
During the breaks, Edward included videos from Youtube . In general, Iordon actively advises to use web 2.0 solutions, for example, he himself uses Twitter , Dopplr and others. Personally, I recommend using the local wiki as the easiest and most effective way to organize a knowledge base (I mentioned this in my article on improving one of the stages of web development ). If you have a small project, the team is distributed in different places, and communication takes place via the Internet, then use BaseCamp to consolidate.
Processes
In this section, light and heavy processes were mentioned ( CMM evaluation system and Agile light processes), Edward in turn called the CMM level and asked to raise the hands of the seminar participants, who believe that their company has reached this level. The hall was attended by people whose companies reached the latest levels, including the fifth. There is something to be proud of, others have something to strive for. Edward mentioned the importance of the prototype and the prototyping stage itself (you may be interested in the prototyping system I created for my manager, HolyGrail ). Jordon talked about the concept of “Daily Build” and configuration management. Demonstrated what he was talking about by opening an email program on his Apple laptop. In addition to the official version of the program in parentheses contained the working version number.
Seminars in Russia (Edward read another seminar in St. Petersburg) - Yordan's first visit to Russia. Edward shares his impressions in his personal blog .
Anyone who wants to learn more about the materials of the seminar, have the opportunity to download the presentation of Edward Yordan's Death March Project , with which he spoke in Russia. In the presentation (pdf format) you will find many links to articles and books.
Related Links:
Report of Irina Surova on the site uml2.ru
Edward Jordan's book "The Path of the Kamikaze" on ozon.ru
The book "The Way of Kamikaze" on oz.by
Personal site of Edward Jordan
I bring to your attention the video master classes of Edward Yordan dedicated to social networks, dedicated to the Social Experience conference (for more, see the Social Experience Conference on Habrahabr ):
smotri.com/video/view/?id=v39309061e7
smotri.com/video/view/?id=v3938024996
smotri.com/video/view/?id=v3930009aae
Source: Amazing Development. Usability and Project Management
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/25363/
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